![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sdaconseil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Houston2.jpg\" "\\"Houston\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nIn Houston, a traditional Republican territory, Chile is served con<\/em> carne<\/em>.\u00a0 No mushy beans to mess up with the original recipe, period.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet scores of Mexican fast food outlets are now doing just the contrary, introducing \u2018frijoles\u2019 (beans) in platters all over the city.\u00a0 And that is also the new reality, period.<\/p>\n The population of the state of Texas grew by 4.3 million people from 2000 to 2010 and about 90% of them came from the coalition that brought back Obama in the White House:\u00a0 Latinos, Asian Americans and African Americans. Whites currently form only 20% of the student population in Houston universities. This is leading political experts to predict a potential parity between democrats and republicans in the state of Texas within 3 presidential elections!\u00a0 Houston might just be holding one of the keys to the future of the Republican Party.<\/p>\n By tacking to the right in numerous policy proposals, the Republicans allowed the Democrats to craft a two-prong strategy that returned them to the Oval Office:<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Aggressively paint the Republicans in a negative way, mostly as an irresponsible bunch led by the 1% meant to manage for the 1%.\u00a0 As Karl Rove said after the election, the \u2018Grand Bet won\u2019.<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Strengthen a largely urban coalition amongst the rising middle class: Latinos, Asian Americans, Afro Americans and young professional women. And it worked.<\/p>\n If the latter coalition were to transform from an emerging tactic to an enduring strategy, that would spell good news for Southern Democrats and dreadful news for Northern Republicans.\u00a0 Media eyeballs are now rapidly shifting to the South, where the political stakes between Democrats and Republicans\u00a0will be growing faster than expected.<\/p>\n Texas politics work rather well because there is a fair space allotted to bipartisan discussions and negotiations. Politics seem to achieve more in Texas than in Washington. For one thing, the economy stands in pretty good shape.\u00a0 The Houston region has a cutting edge in three vital sectors:\u00a0 Oil & gas, health care and space.\u00a0 Houston is often dubbed the \u2018Energy capital of the world\u2019.\u00a0 Capacity expansion at the main refinery of Port Arthur will soon raise production to 600,000 barrels per day, above and over the combined needs of France, Italy and Scandinavia! Yet that production is intended only for the United States.\u00a0 Houston has the largest and most modern medical center in the nation.\u00a0 And NASA, located in the suburbs of Houston, remains by all means the center of space technology.<\/p>\n Like or not, Houston and Texas thus need qualified immigration.\u00a0 And qualified Immigration calls for softer policies in education, health and social issues. Policies that are indeed appreciated by the rising middle class. This stands in contrast with what Mitt Romney and the Republican Party spent a whole year advocating. George W. Bush once rode to the White House brandishing his down-to-earth compassionate conservatism program.\u00a0 It worked to put the man in the White House.\u00a0 But the right wing quickly took control and soon cast away the cloak of the middle ground. \u00a0We all know It eventually led to war and financial ruins.\u00a0 In light of the past election results, a decisive win for Obama, more than ever the moderate voice of Southern Republicans will resonate.<\/p>\n And you have not heard the last from the Bush family.\u00a0 George P. Bush, son of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Mexican-born Columba Bush, has filed last week his intent to run for congressional elections.<\/p>\n A less spicy Chile con carne on offer.<\/p>\n Andr\u00e9 Du Sault<\/p>\n MBA (LBS), MPA (Harvard)<\/p>\n Sources: Wall St Journal, USA Today, the Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Houston by night, 11 Nov 12 In Houston, a traditional Republican territory, Chile is served con carne.\u00a0 No mushy beans to mess up with the original recipe, period.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet scores of Mexican fast food outlets are now doing just the contrary, introducing \u2018frijoles\u2019 (beans) in platters all over the city.\u00a0 And that is also the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdaconseil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}